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"Bang Bang" Barreda picked up a precious second place in today’s ninth stage, the longest in the Dakar ’13 covering some 853 km (533 miles) from San Miguel de Tucuman to Cordoba. Barreda set off first the morning and opened the path for the other riders dominating throughout a special test divided into two parts.

Despres, starting from further back, was the only competitor to outrun the Husqvarna Speedbrain Team rider, winning the special 4:03 minutes ahead of Joan Barreda.

"A really tough and dangerous stage. The ground was so slippery that it would have been really easy to fall. I open up the road coming across every type of animal imaginable; cows, horse, birds, and every time I had to slow down to avoid hitting anything. I’m pleased with the second place. With my hand the way it is I couldn’t do any more."

Alessandro Botturi too, ran a spectacular race on his TE449RR by Speebrain coming in third right behind team-mate Joan. In doing so Alessandro managed to close the gap, moving up to fifth overall place on the leader-board.

"Starting from that far back I was confronted with an incredible amount of dust" said Botturi after the stage. "I pushed hard from the start and I’m happy with the way that it went. This was my stage. If I had started amongst the leaders, I’d have won the race."

A great day in the office for Husqvarna Speedbrain was rounded off with a 7th place for Paulo Goncalves, who also did a fine job in pulling back positions. "I rode well in the first part and I was, in fact, in 5th place at the end of the first leg. Then it was simply too dangerous to push hard, so I sat back and tried not to make any mistakes" said Goncalves.

"Congratulations to our riders for a job well done in this, the longest stage of the rally" said Teamchef Wolfgang Fischer. "We’re really pleased that Alessandro is making ground on the leaders in the overall standings."